I'm writing this after having given it a day to sink in and after reading various articles and reviews on the demo. The one I'll reference the most here was written by a friend of mine from the 'Scapist days, Remy van Ruiten, who has a blog of his own. I'll quote him throughout this post so you know what commentary I'm referring to, but if you want, just read his article here before reading mine.
Let me preface by saying I'm a super, super serious Mass Effect fan. I played both 1 and 2 multiple times, doing every single side-quest in both. So, needless to say, I have been frothing at the mouth impatiently for the release of ME3. I even pre-ordered the N7 Collector's Edition. [Hah! I say even like it's a surprise.]
So, last night, I played the demo. Like my friend Remy, I picked stock-FemShep for my play-through, since I was unable to import my save, it being a demo, and there was no desire for me to recreate my own Shepherd.
Now, I squeed in the most fangirly of senses when I saw Wrex, my darling Garrus, and again when I got a surprise visit from one of my favorite secondary characters, Captain Kirrahe. We all remember his epic speech, don't we? To see my favorite characters again after so long made me wonderfully excited, and arguably distracted. Honestly, it wasn't until I read Remy's thoughts on the demo that I really started thinking about it.
After thinking and reading and letting it sink in, there were many things that started to pop up into my head as rather annoying issues I had with the demo. Something in Remy's article had just clicked. The first thing that really rubbed me the wrong way was the Action, RPG, and Story mode options. What is this shit? I know ME has blown up, and they're trying to appeal to a wider audience, but Mass Effect is NOTHING without the story. NOTHING.
Okay, let me take a breather. To continue... I, of course, being an old fan, picked RPG. We'll just ignore that these options exist. That said, I also don't see the point of them including the origin story in the demo. It seemed like a complete waste of time, and from what I could see, didn't even affect anything about the demo. It's like, "Hey people that know nothing at all about Mass Effect, LOOK WHAT YOU CAN DO." Whereas old fans are like, "Dafuq the point?"
So, picked whatever origin story [didn't seem to matter], picked the stock FemShep, set my character as Infiltrator [forever and always] and got this thing started. Though...
"First of all, I wanted to roll a FemShep. Since it’s just a demo and not a lasting thing, I wanted to go with the default option. The default FemShep looks terrible. I really wish they hadn’t let the community decide."To back-track really quick, stock FemShep looks like shit--Remy is absolutely right. I wouldn't, however, blame this on the fanbase for being allowed to vote.
These were our choices:
Fans liked the blonde, but it turns out they liked her not for being blonde, but for her facial features and haircut. We liked that she looked tough and yet somehow more vulnerable. She was more feminine, but not princess tier. More voting commenced and it turns out people wanted a redhead. Okay, fine. I'm down.
This is what we picked:
[and I say we cause I voted too]
THIS IS WHAT WE GOT:
What is that shit? Blame the creators, not the fans for that one. Just saying. And to go on one more aesthetically based rant: The hair. Okay, that hair we voted on is spectacular. I might have chosen it. That or my stock FemShep hair, which is:
And honestly my Shepherd looks pretty similar to that one.
Okay, that ruffled bob is the shit. It's like, yeah, I got my hair cut forever ago, but I don't really worry about it anymore. I'm Commander Shepherd, I don't give no fucks. The replacement "equivalent" in ME3 is some perfectly shaped, derpy-looking bob. It looks like the haircut a third-grade teacher might get. This it the best shot I could get for it, but believe me, it's way, way too perfect looking.
Granted, this is a stupid thing to care about, but it really looks like crap. Part of me bonding with my personal Shepherd lies in her looking like I want her to look. I don't want Barbie, but I don't want a washed up inbred either. I like a nice level of attractiveness without looking too pretty. The customization for the faces weren't improved much at all, and some of the features seem even worse than before. The only things that definitely look better, from what I saw, are the mouths and the skin--the latter of which just looks slightly more polished.
To continue. The mechanics of the gameplay have been improved, without a doubt. Everything feels smoother. New melee ability, I actually think is pretty awesome, even though it felt a little awkward to pull off. Didn't mind it overall. The rolling about though just didn't feel right in my Mass Effect. Remy's thoughts:
"I do have to admit, the controls are much, much better during combat this time around. Although I feel awkward about how I can dive back and forth, kinda like Gears of War. Then there’s the extra power behind the melee attacks, which is also like Gears."
Moving on... Cinematics look good, especially seeing the Reapers destroy Earth while I'm running around with Anderson. Granted, Remy makes a fair point in that lasers aren't particularly impressive considering how advanced this race is supposed to be. I think at least the scope of this game has been greatly improved. I actually feel small staring at a Reaper, unlike previous games where I might as well have been the biggest, most fucking important thing in the galaxy. [One of those might still be true.]
Now, to continuity.
"Commander Shepard is not a commander anymore. He’s kicked out of the Alliance Military. Okay… I’m failing to see how this is a relevant plot point. Commander Shepard died at the start of Mass Effect 2, Cerberus resurrected him. He worked for them after that. He wasn’t a Spectre anymore. He wasn’t Alliance anymore. He went rogue. Assembled his own crew with his own ship. That was what all of Mass Effect 2 was about. Shepard getting his own independence away from the Council and Alliance so he could fight against the Reapers with his own loyal crew. How the hell did the Alliance ground him? How did they take away the Normandy 2? It’s not even their ship. How did his crew get disbanded? It’s his own crew, nobody was working for the Alliance."I too wondered why the Alliance had grounded me. Even as Paragon, my Shepherd wouldn't stand for that. In ME2 I actually reinstated my Spectre status, so last time I checked, I don't answer to anyone, much less the Alliance. They've never had an effect on me, except perhaps in my love for Admiral Hackett. Don't ask. He's just so fun!
Though on this note, as confused as I am, I do have faith that the full game of Mass Effect 3 will flesh out what happened here. I hope the story makes some goddamn sense and I hope to god Remy's prediction of this game being another "Gather your crew!" ME2 redux is wrong. I do think they'll explain why Shepherd is back on Earth to begin with, why she/he's with the Alliance or listening to them at all, and what happened with regards to being a Spectre / working for the Council. I mean, Anderson is on my council and hell, my council is still aliens.
That's another thing, the meeting in the beginning was a little confusing. I had to remind myself that we were on Earth, not the Citadel, and this wasn't the Council I was talking to. This was... What? The Alliance Committee? The Defense Committee? I think that was it. I don't even remember what Anderson called it, but it was convoluted nonetheless. So, demo-players, don't worry. That Council you sweated over at the end of Mass Effect is still alive. At least, they should be.
I'm a little torn on how to feel about the "oh, save teh child!" gimmick. I've played enough games, watched enough anime and movies to spot shit like that. Here's a child. Child won't listen. "You can't save me!" Wait, wait, let me guess? That kid is dead.
And look at that. The kid dies.
I played the demo with all Renegade speech options, so I don't know if there's even a choice to actually save him or not. The plus side is, we finally have to deal with some amount of guilt and loss for our actions. The first two games, I did my damn job in the best way I knew how, and I didn't spend my nights crying over the people I might or might not have been able to save. There's something about this demo that tells me ME3 might get a little darker, emotionally, on Shepherd's part. I just don't know how to feel about that yet.
I'm still holding out for the whole experience to form a solid opinion.
These are Remy's final thoughts:
"I always wanted to know how this story would continue, how it would end. But it’s no longer the same story. The story to Mass Effect 1, to me, will never have an ending.
Mass Effect 3′s demo has killed my interest in the game. And with that, my interest and involvement in anything to do with BioWare.
I’m sorry, Commander Shepard, but you no longer have my favorite game series on the Citadel."This is truly heartbreaking to me, but there's something to it. That's what got to me. This demo just... Didn't feel like Mass Effect. It felt like some other game with a Mass Effect skin. Will Mass Effect 3 give me the epic ending I've been blathering about since beating ME2? I worry.
I don't want to worry.
I worked really hard to create the perfect save to import for ME3. I really did. I agonized over major decisions, often setting the controller down for some time to think over my choice over a cigarette. I don't know quite why I care so much, but the series really has wormed its way into my heart.
For me, the characters and the story are what has made me love Mass Effect. If they fuck up the character customization and make the combat a little too Gears of War-esque, so be it. I'll live. But if they fuck up the story? If they ruin all the work I've done to put together the perfect army in order to combat the Reapers--saving the Rachni, rewriting the Geth heretics, you name it. I've done these things not only because I felt they were the most morally "right" choice, but it was always influenced by the knowledge that we needed everyone we could get to fight the Reapers.
So if they ruin it? If they fuck up this beautiful story... I'll be with Remy.
All of this negativity aside, I'm still excited. I'll be at the midnight release, waiting to get my hands on my copy of ME3. I'm much more hesitant after playing the demo--which should never be the case. I want to see where this trilogy ends, I want to see how this story unfolds. I want to see what happens to Shepherd, and which characters I'll see again [since I've been trying to avoid spoilers related to characters.]
And of course... I want to see how my romance with Garrus continues. Will we haz babies?
I'll just leave this here. :3
ME3. You better not disappoint.
